Author: Abrar

I propose that a new generation of travelers, born natively into natural language travel searching, will embrace natural language consumer-initiated travel searches (note the word consumer-initiated).

AI does have consumer-facing use cases, but these are nowhere near the hype surrounding its impact on consumer-initiated travel products and services.

In the context of ChatGPT searches, AI prompts are the initial inputs or queries that guide the AI’s response. They serve as the starting point for the AI to generate relevant and useful information. The need for detailed prompts cannot be overstated, especially in the realm of travel-related searches. A detailed prompt provides a clear direction for the AI, ensuring that the generated content is specific, relevant, and valuable.

I believe the US travel industry (companies, media, prognosticators) is currently spending too much mental energy, attention, opportunity cost and focus on the inbound Chinese traveler market while overlooking opportunities from other lucrative source markets. Fixating on ‘the Pre-pandemic level return of Chinese Inbound Travelers’ is like a friend who’s separated from his longtime girlfriend that keeps talking about the good old days; hoping and praying they’ll get back together. I’m afraid, wishing, hoping, and praying isn’t a strategy and as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t matter who separated first and who’s at fault. Chinese Travelers Aren’t Returning Anytime ... Read more

Every aspect of the travel industry benefits from shorter tourism visa processing times --- hotels, guides, tourism boards, airlines, transportation companies, attractions, restaurants, etc. I am speechless (and that’s hard for somebody as opiniated as me) to the point of being shell shocked at the wait times people are experiencing to enter the USA as a tourist or for business. I had to re-read, and then double and triple check, the current USA visa processing times because I thought it was a typo and the decimal point was in the wrong place.

Larger travel companies have and will continue to dominate the initial wave of large language model AI benefits. Where does that leave (comparatively smaller) travel startups

While it can be challenging to differentiate travel startups & travel apps from a customer viewpoint (the most important of viewpoints at the end of the day since they are paying all the bills so say), it's an essential step in identifying, attracting, and retaining hyper-niche customers. By focusing on unique value propositions, user-centric design, excellent customer support, continuous innovation, and unique strategic data sets, travel startups and travel apps can set themselves apart from competitors and communicate their unique strengths to customers.

As a traveler or even as somebody from the travel industry, have you ever struggled to differentiate between two different travel app offerings? Perhaps you've found yourself comparing two travel apps, or two different travel software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers (expense reporting services, trip itinerary aggregators..), and felt like they were virtually indistinguishable from one another. This can be very frustrating for somebody within the travel industry so you can imagine how it would be for consumers, especially when they're trying to make an informed decision about which service to choose within a narrow band of time and interest.

One of the main benefits of the metaverse is that it can provide people with immersive experiences and opportunities for exploration without the need for physical travel. This means that the metaverse could potentially reduce demand for traditional travel services, such as airfare, hotels, and rental cars. At the same time, the metaverse could also create new opportunities for the travel industry. For example, travel companies could create virtual travel experiences that allow people to explore different destinations and cultures from the comfort of their own homes. These virtual travel experiences could be designed to be highly realistic and immersive, ... Read more

As we move into 2023, there are some exciting new developments that are set to shape the way we travel. In this blog post, we will take a closer look at some of the newest trends in the travel industry for 2023.